Where I Want To Be Thesis

Have you ever met someone or know a person with a mental illness? Many young people find out about their illness by the time they are teens. In the book, Where I Want to Be by Adele Griffin, two sisters Jane and Lily learn about how a mental illness changed both of their lives, which is also the theme of the story. Jane and Lily are inseparable sisters who have always shared a vivid, imaginary world. Jane, the elder sibling, was always able to create many games or activities her sister Lily loved. But by the time Lily got to her teenage years, she wanted to grow up while leaving Jane in their made up fantasy world. Lily starts making friends at school, going out more, getting invited to parties and gets her first boyfriend named Caleb, while Jane is stuck in increasingly violent fantasies. Once Lilly and her parents realize how this had affected Jane, they find out that Jane is mentally ill. She is put on anti-psychotic medication and she visits a

According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, which is a website that gives facts and numbers, approximately 20 percent of youth ages 13 to 18 experience severe mental disorders in a given year. For ages 8 to 15, the estimate is 13 percent. Not only is someone dying from a mental illness but the more serious sicknesses can be very costly, making America lose $193.2 billion worth of earnings per year. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for ages fifteen to twenty. A quote from my novel, Where I Want to Be, that states maybe Jane did kill herself is, “Huh. ’Cause what I also heard is it might have been, let’s just say, not exactly an accident. The lady driving the car made a statement to the newspaper that your sister stepped off the curb and walked right in front of her car on purpose.” If Jane did kill herself, than she would be included with the 90 percent of those who died by suicide who had one or more mental